Minimizing the design complexity of wireless transceivers, such as portable telephones and “walkie-talkies,” reduces costs and often decreases weight and power consumption. Reducing cost, weight and power consumption of these devices is advantageous for all types of devices, particularly for portable communications equipment. Wireless transceivers sometimes use a half duplex mode of communications where only one wireless transceiver transmits at a time. When the one wireless transceiver transmits, one or more other wireless transceivers receive this signal.
Many wireless transceivers utilize communications protocols that incorporate a pre-defined time frame. In order for these devices to communicate, two or more devices communicating with such a protocol have to synchronize in order to properly communicate. Systems that use protocols with pre-defined time frames include spread spectrum radio systems that require a transmitter and one or more receivers to synchronize with each other prior to communicating data. Communications systems that have a central controller, such as a base radio station that transmits a standard signal that is available to other radios, establish synchronization with other radios through the use of this standard signal. This standard signal, however, requires an allocation of transmission bandwidth and limits the flexibility of communications between and/or among remote radio equipment. Wireless transceivers that operate in systems that do not have a central controller are required to synchronize with each other at the start of each transmission. This synchronization processing is often consumes time and power and is therefore ill-suited to half-duplex communications system where the transmitting wireless transceiver frequently alternates among the wireless transceivers used for point-to-point communications.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.